MIAMI, June 28, 2017/PRNewswire/ -- On March 3, 2017, in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County a lawsuit was filed by Pedro Cruz and Christina Ruiz against North Shore Medical Center and Tenet Healthcare Corporation for the devastating loss of their daughter, Fatima Christina Cruz's remains after Christina suffered a spontaneous fetal demise in the womb (Case #: 17-005207-CA-01). North Shore Medical Center is a privately owned for-profit hospital located in Miami, Florida. Tenet Healthcare is a multinational investor-owned healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas.

The Complaint alleges that on December 2, 2016, Mrs. Ruiz executed two (2) documents in the presence of hospital personnel, arranging for funeral services for Fatima Christina Cruz which were to be consistent with her and her husband's religious practices. In January 2017, Mr. Cruz and Mrs. Ruiz -- after making multiple inquiries about the remains of their daughter-- were informed by North Shore Medical Center that they had lost and/or thrown away the remains of their daughter. The Defendants, North Shore Medical Center and Tenet Healthcare Corporation, have defended this case on the grounds that the baby's remains were "biomedical waste"," the product of contraception" and that because she is "biomedical waste" . . . . "We did not lose the body of the Plaintiffs' daughter."

This is the second case publicly known where a Tenet Healthcare hospital has lost and/or thrown away the body of a baby despite the mother's expressed wishes to have a funeral service for the baby. The first instance involved Hialeah Hospital, another Miami based hospital. The parties in that case recently entered into a confidential settlement agreement. The case can be found in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County, Case No.2010-026205-CA-01.

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